The
Globe's October 25, 1890 edition has a sketch of this building when it was John
Sheene's Hotel on the corner of Mimico
Avenue (today Kipling) and Lakeshore Road. (Unfortunately,
The Globe misspelled the name Shean and it took me some time to find the
detailed history). In the May 24th, 1988 edition of the The Star, it was
touted as "the" place to stay in the 1890's. Below is a copy of
the picture owned by the Etobicoke Historical Board.

John
Shean, son of Patrick John Shean from Ireland,
married Mary Hickey in 1872 and they rented part of Montgomery's
Inn, another historical building in Etobicoke located on Dundas and Islington. They lived at the
Inn for several years; six of their children
were born there. In 1890, John Shean decided to build his own hotel in
New Toronto. Being across the street from the asylum, young people in the
neighbourhood were often sent invitations to dances held to give the patients a
chance to socialize.

The location of the hotel was perfect - it was halfway
between the farms of the Peel region and the markets downtown Toronto. Farmers would often stop
overnight on their regular trips to market.

The family sold the hotel in 1896 and moved to Elmbank to
take up farming. While the building changed hands several times, it soon
became widely known as the New Toronto Hotel.

On August 14, 1899, the Globe & Mail
reports an accident that occurs close to the Mimico Asylum and refers to the
New Toronto Hotel, as follows:

"While
driving along the LakeShore road yesterday, Hon. Richard Harcourt,
Provincial Treasurer, and Mr. W.J. Hill, M.P.P. for West
York, met with a rather serious accident. Their horse took
fright at an electric car near the Mimico Asylum, and ran away, throwing both
gentlemen out into the ditch. Mr. Hill sustained some severe cuts and
bruises about the legs, and the Provincial Treasurer got a bad shaking
up. At first it was feared that a couple of his ribs were broken, but
subsequent medical examination indicated that his injuries were not
serious. Dr. Beemer of the Asylum drove the injured gentlemen back to the
city. The horse - a livery stable beast - ran to the New Toronto Hotel,
where it was captured."

On
May 24, 1912, Mr.
Ambrose O'Brien, the proprietor of the New Toronto Hotel passed away after
several weeks of illness. He had owned the hotel for 7 years.

In 1915, Mr. John O'Meara, licensee of the New Toronto
Hotel, was called before the Ontario License Board to answer some allegations
of an incident that took place in the hotel involving illegal sale of alcohol
after-hours and some tussle that ensued with a License detective.
(Toronto Daily Star, 1915/08/23). Unfortunately, the hearing had not been
completed at the time that the article was written, and I haven't been able to
locate a follow-up article that gives the judgment.

Later, on May 1, 1917, the Globe & Mail reports another
incident with the New Toronto Hotel close to the Asylum, but later in the
article refers to the same as the Lakeview Hotel: (I've quoted the story in
full, as it also gives an interesting reflection of the effects of prohibition.
From 1916 to 1927 the Ontario Temperance Act was in place, whereby no alcohol
sale or service was permitted).

"Coroner G.W. Graham's jury at the Humber Beach Hotel
last night found that William Griffin, whose body was discovered in the Asylum
creek on the morning of April 23, came to his death by drowning under
suspicious circumstances. The proprietor of the New Toronto Hotel and Griffin's comrades all
declared they had no liquor in the hotel, and the jury added a rider to their
verdict declaring their disbelief of this evidence, and recommended that the
proper authorities close up the premises.

Want Traffic Stopped. "We find" read the
verdict, " that William Griffin came to his death on April 22, 1917, by
drowning in the Asylum Creek under suspicious circumstances. The jury
believes that the evidence given by Mortimer Galvin, Arthur Littleton and
Michael Carroll to be untrue, and recommend that the Lakeview Hotel at New
Toronto be immediately closed by the proper authorities. The jury further
recommends that the proper authorities take steps immediately to prevent the
traffic of liquor at New Toronto." Post-mortem evidence was to the
effect that Griffin
came to his death by drowning, and that there were no marks of violence on the
body.

Griffin was "Pretty Drunk". Littleton,
Galvin, Carroll and Griffin left Sunnyside for
New Toronto after midnight, and, according to their story, Griffin was pretty drunk at that time. Littleton and Carroll, the hotel proprietor, swore that Griffin went past his
home to the hotel, where he sat down on the porch outside, which was the last
seen of him.

Liquor Easy to Get. Michael Carroll, the hotel
proprietor, told the jury that whiskey was more easily obtained at New Toronto
than before prohibition. He denied having liquor on his premises for
sale, but admitted his hostler, who was caught on one occasion with some
bottled goods, might have kept it without his knowledge.":

While
there is no concrete evidence that the hotel was involved in the bootlegging
trade, it is reported that residents found two secret compartments. One
was a under a spring-loaded baseboard in a space that could hold liquor bottles
placed horizontally end to end. Another secret door was found at the back
of a closet concealing a tiny room only three feet deep. When the hotel
was renovated in 1984 for Chatter's Restaurant, wine-making equipment was found
in the basement.

In
1924, the Long Branch Racetrack opened and brought new business to the
hotel. The owners provided a shuttle service to and from the racetrack.

By 1935, it was known as the Almont Hotel (spelled Almonte
Hotel in an advertisement in the 1947 Lakeshore District Police Association
Yearbook). By that time, the name "New Toronto Hotel" had
been resurrected for use on a new building on the corner of Fourth Street and Lakeshore. (See
the section on New Toronto Hotel).
The rooms of the Almont were often rented to retired men who more or less
became permanent boarders. I found many advertisments in the classified
sections of the newspapers over several years listing unfurnished and furnished
rooms for ent. The building existed as the Almont for many, many
years. By the early 1980's, the building had closed and had been boarded up.

Below is one picture from 1953 as posted in the TPL Digital
Collections website. The picture on the right is a photograph lent to me
by a "friend of a friend of mine". The date of this photo is
unknown. I would have to say that it is later than 1953 since the
building looks like it has been resided. The 1953 picture looks like the
original brick.

In
1984, Carl Thomas Georgevich and John Paul Evans purchased the historic
building. They made extensive repairs and it became Chatter's Restaurant.

I
am told that for a couple of years in the late 1990's it was Vendetta's Bar
& Grill, and then changed hands again a couple more times, before it became
the Phantom Lounge as it is today, pictured below: